Legendary hip hop figure, Russell Simmons has called for the recording and broadcasting industries to remove the “misogynistic words ‘bitch’ and ‘ho’ and the racially offensive word ‘nigger’” from hip hop tracks amid “growing public outrage”.

Simmons founded the Def Jam label with producer Rick Rubin in 1984. The label has released many seminal acts, including Public Enemy, Beastie Boys and Run DMC. He is now also director of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, through which he issued this statement.

He said, “[This is] not about censorship. [It is] about the corporate social responsibility of the industry to voluntarily show respect to African Americans and other people of colour, African American women and to all women in lyrics and images.

“These three words should be considered with the same objections to obscenity as ‘extreme curse words’.”

Simmons is adamant, however, that the music industry should regulate itself and is not calling for government action that would restrict freedom of speech, but said that artists and industry figures must understand that “with freedom of expression comes responsibility.”

Read the full statement